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Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans said Tuesday that a special team of police officers would reopen hundreds of mishandled cases uncovered by a city inspector general’s audit that was released last week.

February 1, 2013, Friday

Mitch Landrieu

Cheryl Gerber/Associated Press

AGE 49.

POLITICAL FAMILY The fifth of nine children born into a New Orleans political family. His father, Moon Landrieu, was mayor from 1970 to 1978 and oversaw the desegregation of City Hall, surrounding himself with a multiracial brain trust. Mitch Landrieu’s sister Mary is a Democratic senator representing Louisiana.

ROAD TO THE MAYOR’S OFFICE A state legislator for 16 years until he became lieutenant governor in 2003. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New Orleans twice, first in 1994 and then in 2006. The latter campaign was an emotionally charged election less than a year after Hurricane Katrina that pitted him against C. Ray Nagin, who was seeking a second term. Mr. Nagin won with 53 percent of the vote and was precluded by term limits from running again.

THIRD TIME THE CHARM In 2010, the two candidates who presented the biggest challenge to Mr. Landrieu were both businessmen, and each ran on an outsider’s platform, as Mr. Nagin had. But voters chose Mr. Landrieu, a consummate insider, by an overwhelming margin.